World View & Market Commentary. Forest first; Trees second. Focused on Real & Knowable facts that filter through the "experts" fluff and media hyperbole. Where we've been, what the future may hold and developing a better way forward.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

What follows is the St. Louis Fed’s Research Division’s compilation of International Economic Trends. The source of their data comes from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), so weigh this data against reality accordingly.

They cover the following regions specifically: Canada, the Euro Area, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Again it’s interesting to see the global trends jump out of the pages at you. None of these regions have escaped the contagion, that is obvious as you thumb through these pages. The employment situation world-wide is very troubling, you can clearly see the lack of manufacturing taking place and the excess capacity that is created as utilization falls… no demand, no production.

Below is a supplement to the International Economic Trends (IET) that includes three additional charts that compare money measurements. These charts stand out to me in that the U.S. is clearly the world’s purveyor of fiat – the Pusher of Fiat, if you will.

Note, however, that the most important measurement of money supply, the broad measure, is now turning downwards in growth rates globally – not the picture of rampant inflation that many are trying to sell you (although the longer term trend is still clearly higher). The destruction of credit contributes to the fall of these aggregates, but even they do not measure the extent of the deleveraging that’s occurring in the shadow banking world of derivatives.